Independence Towers rent strike ends with new landlord

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The longest-running rent strike in the Kansas City metropolitan area ended Wednesday night.

Tenant voted to end the strike after reviewing a union-negotiated, signed contract with the new property owner that includes numerous concessions.

Among them, they won’t have to pay back the rent they refused to pay while on strike against the previous owners. KC Tenants, the larger union organizing locals at multiple beleaguered properties, indicated the total amount of rent withheld in the 8-month-long strike tallied up to nearly $300,000.

“I think it says so much about the power that we have as tenants when we actually just come together and demand what we know we deserve,” said Anna Heetman, a longtime Independence Towers resident who is on the negotiating team.

Tenants at the high-rise apartment formed a union more than a year ago when they were without hot water for weeks.

KC Tenants has made a lot of noise during protests at more than one property where tenants described things like mold, plumbing failures and pest infestations. The Independence Towers Tenant Union is the first of the local unions to achieve a lease agreement that’s negotiated with a tenant union to apply equally to all tenants.

“Being able to sit at the table with the landlord and actually talk over and go back and forth on what a lease looks like,” Heetman said. “That’s the biggest win to me, is being taken seriously.”

Some of the concessions include the following:

• Permanent HVAC repair by November 2025;
• A monthly rent discount of $75 until that repair is complete;
• In-unit repairs to be completed by year-end;
• A late payment fee of $50 with a 3-week grace period for before pursuing eviction;

Also, for the first year of new ownership, they’ll get to stay at set rates equal to what most are paying now, which are lower than what some are currently paying. That eases their worries that the new owner, having just purchased a distressed property, would choose to non-renew their leases in order to rehab, renovate and re-open with higher rents.

The property has gone through several owners before now. The organizing over poor living conditions started when the property was owned by Parker Webb, the CEO and Principal of FTW Investments, with financing from Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae then put the property in receivership. A court appointed Trigild, Inc. as receiver.

In April, a judge authorized a sale to an LLC connected with Dynasty Properties. The tenant union began reaching out to owner Vijai Ponnezhan before the sale was even finalized. The negotiating team got their signed agreement on Tuesday.

Heetman remarked that the negotiation was not just a matter of making demands but also establishing an open line of communication, which is something she said was lacking in the past.

“I think that this sets the stage really well to have a good working relationship with Vijai moving forward,” she said. “We really want to work with him to get Independence Towers back up to where it should be and where we deserve it to be.”

Citywide KC Tenants organizer Justin Stein credited the progress to the rent strike. He cautioned that a rent strike, while not protected by Missouri law, involves more than just people individually refusing to pay rent.

“Tenants made the decision to go on rent strike together in a unified way as a tenant union,” Stein said. “It is planned and disciplined and strategic.”

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